By Drew Ciampa and Andrew Eichenholz

On a night in which both teams were unable to pull away with their respective leads, Stony Brook’s Sabre Proctor put on an impressive show by scoring what proved to be the game-winning basket against UMass-Lowell.

Stony Brook (10-9, 3-3 America East) needed all it could get from its top scorer Thursday night, as they narrowly escaped with a 64-60 road win.

In a game that could have easily been overlooked, UMass-Lowell (7-12, 1-6), revealed itself to be a difficult test as the River Hawks stuck with the Seawolves all game.

The game was a tight one throughout with 12 lead changes and the largest point differential at five points in favor of the Seawolves.

With a strong effort early on, Proctor scored the first nine points for Stony Brook. The win brings the Seawolves to .500 in conference play at 3-3.

Proctor finished the night dropping a game-high 22 points, which moved her into a tie for 13th place on the Stony Brook all-time scoring leaderboard with 1,072 points.

The performance also awarded Procter her 15th double-digit game on the season. Playing only 24 minutes, Proctor continues to show her efficiency on the court.

Brittany Snow fell one rebound short of a double-double, contributing 17 points and nine rebounds in the winning effort.

Also hitting double-digit point totals were Christa Scognamiglio and Kori Bayne-Walker, with 13 and 10 points, respectively.

Bayne-Walker led the game with eight assists.

For UMass-Lowell, it was Jasmine McCroy who led the way, scoring 14 points and grabbing seven rebounds while Kayla Gibbs put in a 13-point effort.

With UMass-Lowell leading at halftime by a score of 30-29, the Seawolves maintained their composure and kept playing their game.

Taking advantage of its strength down low, Stony Brook outrebounded UMass-Lowell 20-11 in the second half.

Eventually, the victory on the boards gave Stony Brook ample scoring chances and at the 6:02 mark, Bayne-Walker tied the game.

From that point forward Stony Brook would not look back as they took the lead on the next possession and held onto it until the final buzzer sounded.

On Sunday afternoon, the Stony Brook women’s basketball team was back in action against Binghamton. SBU was too strong on the boards for the Bearcats and came away with the win in an important America East matchup,  67-54.

When the first-half buzzer sounded, the Seawolves were dominating play. What stood out was that they had more than double the offensive rebounds compared to Binghamton’s total tally on the boards in the first half.

But, as Head Coach Caroline McCombs led her team back to the locker room, it was only a three-point ballgame.

“We had to work on finishing,” senior Sabre Proctor said. “That’s an Achilles heel that we need to kind of work on, is finishing on second possessions.”

Proctor worked on it herself in the second half, scoring 10 of her 14 points. Between crashing the boards for six rebounds and cashing in on all five of her free throw opportunities, it was a solid performance for the team’s leading scorer.

But, it was an overall team effort in earning more and more second chance opportunities throughout the game.

Four Seawolves registered six or more rebounds. Alyssa Coiro had one of her better performances during her time on Long Island.

After not being able to cash in on her early chances, Coiro turned it on in the second half netting eight points and eight rebounds in the game to help the team to its fourth America East victory of the season.

The Bearcats’ nine three-pointers kept what should have been an easy win close, turning things into a battle.

For McCombs, there were many positives.

“Our team was relentless on the glass,” the first-year Head Coach said. “[We] just never really let down despite a lot of three point shots.”

The Seawolves will start the second half of their conference slate after playing Hartford on Thursday, making every game important. From the No. 2 to the No. 5 in the conference, the teams are within only a couple of games of one another.

“You just have to prepare your team,” McCombs said. “Take it one game at a time.”